A Step by Step Guide to Improve Your Health

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Stay Hydrated

Drink more mineral water

Try to drink at least a 1.5 litre bottle of pure mineral water everyday. Add a pinch of unrefined sea salt ( we use Celtic Sea Salt) to increase speed of absorption/hydration and to boost your mineral levels. Avoid tap water and don’t include tea, coffee or soda/pop.

J.E.R.F. - Just Eat Real Food

Only eat wholefoods

Avoid anything excessively processed. Most packaged, pre-prepared, pre-cooked food products are processed nowadays and therefore include all sorts of toxic chemicals used to preserve, flavour, colour the product. Only eat wholefoods. Wholefoods tend not to have any ingredients other than itself. Just eat meat, fish/seafood, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, eggs, dairy, beans/legumes and wholegrains. Avoid white sugar !

Go Organic, Grass-fed and Choose Free-range

When buying meat, dairy or any other wholefood product, only select the highest quality

Try to avoid processed meats. Choose the best quality, freshest meats, vegetables and fruits, preferably locally produced, grass fed or farmed without the use of toxic pesticides, chemical fertilisers, fungicides or herbicides.

Balance & Personalise Your Meals to Suit Your Own Metabolism

Identify the ideal ratio of macronutrients that will fuel YOUR body

Take the Metabolic Typing Test to work out what ‘type’ you are and then adjust the levels of protein, carbohydrates and fats in your meals to meet your own individual needs. We’re all different and require differing levels of macronutrients depending on your genetic requirement. Listen to your body and fine tune the macronutrient levels in accordance with lifestyle factors such as stress levels, activity levels, menstruation cycles and climate etc

Eat More Raw Fruits & Vegetables

Have a daily smoothie or juice for breakfast

Increase nutrient levels by making a juice everyday. Use fruits (apples, berries), leafy green vegetables (spinach, kale), proteins (collagen powder) and fats (chia seeds) and try to add as many superfoods (wheatgrass, spirulina) as you can to boost energy levels and improve your vitality. We use a Nutri-Bullet at Bodyguards. Always drink the juice straight away after blending it so that the enzymes and secondary nutrients are still alive and fresh.

Reduce Your Levels of Starchy Carbs

Have salad boxes for lunch

Have less starchy root vegetables (potatoes, carrots) and eat more leafy green vegetables such as rocket, watercress, baby leaf, lettuce, spinach, kale etc Try to prepare your own salads for lunch and include some form of protein (chicken, turkey, ham, beef, duck) and some form of healthy fat (nuts, seeds, avocado, olives, cheese, olive oil)

Eliminate Processed Grains

Avoid gluten, particularly the gluten found in wheat (gliadin)

Minimise or completely remove the amount of bread, pasta, pastries and cakes from your diet. If you do have any of the above, try to choose or prepare using coconut flour, chestnut flour or almond flour in order to avoid gluten and minimise the damage caused to your gut.

Improve Your Digestive System Health

Reduce bloating, chronic inflammation and allow your gut to repair

Increase the levels of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats (fish, eggs, coconut oil, nuts and seeds) that you consume and reduce the levels of pro-inflammatory omega-6’s (vegetable oils) to reduce overall inflammation. Take pro-biotics, digestive enzymes and eat fermented foods (pre-biotics) like saurkraut and kefir to increase the levels of good gut bacteria in comparison to bad gut bacteria. Reduce stress (especially at meal times). Avoid processed foods like sugar, ready-meals, processed grains and alcohol.

Don’t Mess With Nature

Avoid anything made from soy (unless fermented like soy sauce). Try to find a farm that provides un-pasteurised milk and dairy products. Limit the levels of nitrite and nitrates that you consume by removing all pre-cooked, pre-prepared low quality meats.

Quality over Quantity

Sometimes less is more

Try to focus more on improving the quality of your diet, lifestyle and exercise rather than purely just focusing on how much you do. Often the key to a high quality diet, lifestyle and exercise routine is good old fashioned ‘planning and preparation’. Choose the highest quality foods, cook all of your meals, make time for fun activities and relaxation and organise your fitness training for best results.

Avoid Achiever Fever

Make time to relax

Always being on the go can be detrimental to your health and often results in exhaustion and fatigue. Chill out ! Have a bath, add some magnesium or Epsom bath salts, read a book and just relax now and again (as often as possible).

Find A Balance

Help your body to achieve and maintain homeostasis

Work hard - Play hard. Balance your diet, lifestyle and exercise routine in order to balance your autonomic nervous system and prevent yourself from constantly being in ‘survival mode’. Variety is the spice of life ! All work and no play often means you’ll be no fun to be around.

Get Outside & Breathe

Make sure you get some vitamin D (sunshine) and plenty of fresh air

Try and walk more. Walk to work, take a wander in your lunchbreak or simply make time to enjoy a leisurely walk in your local park, amongst nature, in the sun (when possible).

Slow Down

Reduce your stress levels and thus the load placed upon your body

Stress comes in many forms (mental, emotional, physical, nutritional etc) and although in small quantities it can be beneficial, if it all accumulates and becomes too much it can have a profoundly negative effect on every system within the body. Learn how to manage times of excessive stress by practicing breathing techniques, tai chi, qi-gong or meditation. Walking can be an active form of meditation.

Improve Your Posture

Optimise your spinal alignment

Learn how to improve your posture and practice specific exercises that will help to improve your spinal alignment. In a nutshell, stretch your tightest muscles and strengthen your weakest. This approach helps to restore a structural balance, minimise physical stress and allow you to prevent or recover from any back problems.

Improve Sleep Quality

Create a ‘Wind-down’ routine

Avoid stimulants in the evening (say after 7.30pm) including caffeine, sugar, alcohol, cigarettes, bright lights, using your phone, tablet or laptop and choose which books you read or TV programmes you watch carefully to avoid ‘jacking up’ your system and preventing you from getting a high quality nights sleep. When we wind down properly and sleep well we recover, repair and fix any physical or mental damage from the daytime. If you over stimulate in the evening, sleep quality and thus recovery is diminished significantly, leaving you still tired in the morning.

Prioritise Flexibility

Stretch Everyday

Stretching and mobilisation exercises reduce muscle soreness and reduce recovery time significantly. They also offer an opportunity to relax, breathe and slow down. Without normal range of motion, joints of the body tend to wear out quicker and the body can feel ‘tight’, painful, sluggish and immobile. Being flexible can improve your speed, power, agility and general well-being.

Recovery is As Important as Exercise

Take a days rest, allow your body to repair and become stronger

To help you recover from your exercise routine, schedule in days where you abstain and rest from intense forms of activity. Sometimes less is more !

Get Plenty of Sleep

Be in bed by 10.30pm and ensure you get 8 hours of good quality sleep

Try to get lots of early nights. Sleep is key if you want to feel good and has even proven to be instrumental in recovery from exercise and helps with fat loss too. Optimal recovery occurs between the hours of 10pm and 6am.

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Disclaimer: We’re all unique! Results vary from person to person depending on their genetics, diet, lifestyle and environment and therefore how quickly you achieve the results you desire can depend upon a variety of factors, thus why we favour the ‘holistic’ approach.